VF and Other Consumer Cyclical Stocks Making Big Moves on October 23, 2012

The market is having a bad day so far. The Nasdaq has decreased 0.9%; the S&P 500 has slipped 1.5%; and the Dow is down 1.8%. The consumer cyclical sector is a category of stocks that relies heavily on the business cycle and economic conditions. Consumer cyclicals include industries such as automotive, housing, entertainment and retail. The category can be further divided into durable and non-durable sections. Durable cyclicals include physical goods such as hardware or vehicles, while non-durables represent items like movies or hotel services. The performance of consumer cyclicals is highly related to the state of the economy. They represent goods and services that are not considered necessities, but luxurious purchases. During contractions or recessions, people have less disposable income to spend on consumer cyclicals. When the economy is expanding or booming, the sales of these goods rise as retail and leisure spending increase.

The Consumer Cyclical sector (XLY) is currently lagging behind the overall market, down 1.2%, and its current biggest movers are:

Company	Market Cap	Percentage Change
Autoliv (NYSE:ALV)	$6.07 billion	-8.5%
TRW Automotive (NYSE:TRW)	$5.83 billion	-6.1%
Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG)	$9.92 billion	+6%
Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR)	$6.69 billion	+5.2%
VF (NYSE:VFC)	$17.52 billion	-3%
WABCO Holdings (NYSE:WBC)	$3.69 billion	-2.8%
BorgWarner (NYSE:BWA)	$7.53 billion	-2.7%

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Autoliv (NYSE:ALV) is down 8.5% to reach $58.21 per share. The company's volume for the day so far is 1.7 million shares.

TRW Automotive (NYSE:TRW) has decreased to $44.90 per share, a 6.1% fall. At one million shares, the company's volume so far today is 1.3 times its current daily average.

Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG) is up 6% to reach a current price of $46.13 per share. So far today, 3.4 million shares of the company's stock have changed hands. Yesterday, volume was only 2.4 million shares.

After rising 5.2%, Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR) is currently trading at a share price of $90.81. So far today, the company's volume is 2.3 million shares, 2.4 times the average volume over the last three months.

VF (NYSE:VFC) is currently trading at a share price of $154.60, a 3% decline. The company is currently trading a volume of 437,534 shares.

At $56.11, WABCO Holdings (NYSE:WBC) has slipped 2.8%. So far today, the company's volume is 173,211 shares, 0.2 times the average daily volume.

After a decline of 2.7%, BorgWarner (NYSE:BWA) has hit a share price of $64.09. The company's volume is currently 485,978 shares.

The Bottom Line The nature of the market is such that stocks will have good days and bad days. Daily stock performance should be weighed against historical performance and put in context of the market overall. However, these fundamental metrics must be analyzed with historic data, industry information in addition to firm specific financial statements.